I’m an avid techcrunch reader; and I recently came across an article about Freshbooks

Freshbooks is ‘painless billing’ - online invoicing, payments, client lists, accounts receivable, etc- in a Web 2.0 format.

But that’s not what piqued my interest.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/14/freshbooks-releases-first-quarterly-industry-benchmark-report/

It is not the tools that make Freshbooks innovative- its how they apply the data aggregated from the tools to help you run your small business. What that means is you- a small business- can be dynamically compared to other businesses in your industry or sector, according to revenue, expenses, one-time or recurring payments, etc. You get your personal report card- and you can compare that to your industry.

Take that a step further. Instead of merely comparing your business by valuation or revenue; any type of business can learn how to run itself by comparing itself across an array of statistics to its competitors; number of staff, staff salary, location, investments, even linkedin connections or software solutions in use.

Comparing report cards helps us know when to follow- and when to avoid- the new trend.

Now I just need to convince Brian to use Freshbooks.